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Smart, Generous, Low-Key And Indicted in Bribery Plot

He was the man who understood the arcana of an arcane process, a former tax assessor whom building owners could hire for a not inconsiderable fee and feel confident that they had retained the man who knew just what it took to convince an assessor to keep their tax bills down.

There was nothing flashy about Albert Schussler, people in the real estate industry said yesterday about the 85-year-old tax consultant at the center of the city's alleged $10 million tax-assessment bribery scheme. Quite the contrary, they said; he always struck them as quiet, knowledgeable, down to earth.

And generous, too.

Mr. Schussler, who was indicted on Monday, was a major supporter of many Jewish charities -- a past president of the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, a director of the UJA-Federation of New York, a longtime supporter of the New Israel Fund and American Friends of the Open University of Israel.

''He was a low-key guy, intelligent, a professional'' said Jeffrey Gural, a building owner and manager who said Mr. Schussler had worked with Mr. Gural's father, Aaron. ''It's like when you hire a lobbyist. You hope that he's going to convince whoever you hired him to lobby that your position is correct.''

Mr. Schussler, a tax consultant and building owner who had previously worked in the assessor's office for 30 years, is said by the United States attorney's office in Manhattan to have offered assessors bribes ranging from expensive dinners to thousands of dollars in exchange for desirable assessments on buildings owned by him and by others who hired him to represent them.

A lawyer for Mr. Schussler, Steven Cohen, declined on Monday to comment on the charges.

Consultants like Mr. Schussler serve as intermediaries between some landlords and assessors, ostensibly supplying late-breaking information that might enable an assessor to better understand the economics of a building. ''You want people who understand the process better than you,'' said Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, a trade association.

Mr. Schussler is also an owner of the landmark Ansonia Hotel and other buildings on the Upper West Side. He has served on the real estate tax assessment committee of the Real Estate Board. He lives in the Sovereign, a 48-story glass tower on East 58th Street near Sutton Place.

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Yesterday, Mr. Spinola, Mr. Gural and others described Mr. Schussler as quiet and extremely knowledgeable about tax assessments and real estate values. ''If you had a conversation with him, you would be impressed with what he knew and the technical expertise he had in the area,'' Mr. Spinola said. ''Which I think impressed an awful lot of people.''

Mr. Gural said, ''Being an ex-assessor, he understood more than anyone what the assessors look for, and what it would take to convince an assessor that a building shouldn't have its assessment raised.'' Mr. Gural, chairman of Newmark & Company, a leasing and management company, said his father hired Mr. Schussler as a consultant on some buildings in which the younger Mr. Gural was a partner.

Max Kampelman, a retired lawyer in Washington who said he had been an investor with Mr. Schussler in the Ansonia years ago, called him ''a warm, plain, down-to-earth person.'' He recalled getting a letter from Mr. Schussler encouraging him to contribute to the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

In addition to supporting the orchestra, Mr. Schussler and his wife, Claire, are longtime donors to the New Israel Fund, which raises money to support civil rights, human rights and religious pluralism in Israel; and to the American Friends of the Open University of Israel, a distance-learning and online university.

A spokesman for the UJA-Federation said: ''He's been very active over the years. He has served on our board of directors. He's been an active major contributor to the campaign for years and years and years.''

Eric Heffler, executive vice president of the American Friends of the Open University of Israel, who said he had sought Mr. Schussler's advice in the past on strategic planning matters, said: ''He's just a very sweet, wonderful gentleman and I am very, very hurt and sorry over what I'm reading. He is one of the nicest people I've ever met.''